Carlisle: It’s a very difficult time, but we’re going to keep fighting

Rick Carlisle and Luka Doncic criticized the general attitude of the Dallas Mavericks after the defeat against the Utah Jazz.

Last night, however, both were confident despite the home loss versus the Phoenix Suns.

Carlisle (via NBA.com):

We had some loose possessions, we had some poor defensive possessions and they got the momentum back. It’s just a really disappointing one because of how hard our guys fought. But Phoenix hung in and they made plays and they were able to do what they had to do to get the momentum back and win, so we simply got to do better. But I loved our attitude headed into the game and I’m just really disappointed for the team.

We’re at the height of the difficulty of our schedule. It’s important we just stay in the fight, keep playing like we did tonight and we just got to stem the tide. It’s a very difficult time, but we’re going to stay at it and we’re going to keep fighting through

Doncic:

I think the effort was great today and I think we just had a little bad luck. We had like five-to-six open shots again that didn’t fall. We’ve got to work on that, but I’m really proud of how we reacted with our effort

The Mavs are in thirteenth place in the Western Conference with 8 wins in 20 games.